Suby and gasohol

Here in Thailand the government has decided in its infinite wisdom that as of Jan 1 there will no longer be 95 octane gas and all that will be available is 95 octane gasohol consisting of 10% ethanol. I suspect that the next change will be to E-20, irrespective of the fact that a large number of Thai cars cannot run on gasohol.

Rant aside, my question is compatability of the Subaru 2.5 in FI and turbo mode. The one and only dealer here has no idea and is not about to find out for me. The mechanics tell me that the turbo will not run on E-10.

Gasohol is available in the States for some time, so does anyone have experience with this?

Robert, gasohol is widely used around here in the 10% type. I can't speak specifically for a Suby Turbo as I don't own one, but I see more than one filling up the same places I do. As well as far more exotic cars.....gasohol is no big deal in 10% strengths. The only thing I have seen in older cars is it seems like the aftermarket rubber gasoline hoses that used to last forever now crack and leak in 3 or 4 years.

I don't think gasohol will be a problem for your Suby.

As gasohol becomes more in use there have been alot of reports of the bad side of it. An article in AutoWeek really put it into perspective, I wrote the author concerning use in more modern engines (BMW in particular) and she replied as follows:
Jeff..

I perhaps overstated the perils of using E85 in unprepared engines.
Hyperbole for emphasis. E85 is not methanol, after all. However the most
benign advice I have received from is the staunchest supporter of E85 is:
"Of course E85 should never be used in any engine not especially designed
for it." These advocates say that the worse consequence E85 in an unprepared
engine would produce is extremely rough running because the ECU could not
compensate for the lack of energy.

The puzzlement is: Why would anyone want to put E85 in anything but a
flex-fuel engine? They will cut their fuel mileage by at least 20%, maybe
more. (Yes, E85 improves GAS mileage but that's because there is only 15%
gasoline in E85. FUEL mileage is greatly reduced. And thus range. Do Bimmer
folk really like to stop more often for fuel? IF they can find E85 anyway.
(There are a total of four stations selling E85 in all of California and
only one is open to the public.)

The energy in E85, which is what a driver is paying for, is much less than
the energy is gasoline. The price per gallon must be at least 20 to 30% less
than a gallon of gas to be competitive.

If a driver wants a Feel Good moment because he is using less fuel, saving
the environment, reducing our dependency on Canadian oil (where most of our
imports come from) then he can simply drive less. And most certainly IDLE
less. Don't use drive-through banks, dry-cleaners, fast-food joints etc.
Just keep in mind if your engine is running and your car is not moving you
are getting ZERO miles per gallon.

Denise McCluggage

Actually, Jeff the theory of using the 10% mix is to give our farmers a market for the corn they produce. If we can buy from ourselves that money gets recirculated within our economy. In fact, because of the multiplier effect, you can realize a lot of economic benefit from the money not going overseas.

Now, it is true that OBDII cars are going to get less mileage, in fact on the suby I have run both 91 octane, and 89 octane with 10% ethanol. You really get about 10% less gas mileage, so if you can buy the ethanol blend for a cost savings of more then 10% you are saving money. The down side, you usually can't buy it for more then 10% less, so you don't save anything at all. You are also going to have less available horsepower, and the engine will run a tiny bit hotter, although not even registerable on most peoples gauges.

As for saving gas by not sitting in the car idling.....if your going to let the car idle for less then 5 minutes, you save fuel by leaving it running at idle versus shutting it off and restarting. Not to mention, the wear and tear on your nasty for the environment battery and the starter will last a lot longer also, why do you think UPS leaves their trucks running all of the time, the average stop is less then 5 minutes.

I am aware of the disadvantages of E-10 and compability issues in carburated and older FI systems. In fact even some new FI syspems cannot use the stuff.

In any case, come Jan 1st, I have no choice and there will be no 95 gasoline, with 91 gas to be discontinued as soon as they can make ethanol fast enough.

This impacts which engine to buy or build for the Speedster, hence the compatibility question for the Suby.

It will run, it just won't run as efficiently. You may want to consider an aftermarket system by someone like Cobb, this gives the ability to run different MAPS and work better with fuels that the current ECU hasn't been set up for, but people run 89 octane with 10% ethanol here in Iowa all of the time, as for running it with the turbo, that I don't know, thats why I suggest you may need to by an aftermarket type of ECU to make the engine run better on a 20% ethanol blend.

Heck Cobb could run the engine on the fuel you are going to use and develope the MAPS for you.

Cobb? Is that like corn-off-the-cobb? Fitting name.

This is the link: http://www.cobbtuning.com/tech/sohc/index.html

This is a good website, a huge one as a matter of fact. One observation I would make is that a car like mine or Steven's is a bit of an anomaly there, since it deals mostly with factory-built Subaru autos. Details regarding engines and drivetrains abound.

I do know that here in Pa. if a driver leaves a UPS truck running and unattended, said driver is looking for another job.
FedEx even dictates to a driver how he or she is to hold the vehicle's keys while carring a package!

yea, they probably don't want the vehicle to dissappear!!!!! different areas, different rules